Most extreme/bizarre railroad crossings

[index]

I am looking for examples of extreme railroad crossings going through roundabouts, massive or multiple intersections in a short distance, on a very wide road, at extremely skewed angles, ridiculously steep, an absurd number of tracks, awful sight distance, etc. Basically anything that is absurd or wildly dangerous. I am not counting street running tracks as part of this.

[Bruce]

Main Street at Horne in Mesa, AZ has light rail trains running through a roundabout. Opened in 2019, according to ENR.

[index]

Just remembered where this one I was thinking of was:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/34%C2%B010'42.6%22N+77%C2%B057'00.1%22W/@34.1784961,-77.9506737,338m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d34.178495!4d-77.95003?entry=ttu

This is probably the most skewed crossing I know of. The tracks must cross at an inner angle of around 10 degrees or so.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Fort Collins, CO. We also have the street running, tho it's disqualified per the rules of the post.

I give you North College (287/14) at Maple/Jefferson.  The tracks in the foreground are UP, and they go out to the former cement plant. They are infrequently used, but when they are, all the traffic lights here go into 'nobody moves' mode. Same thing happens if the crossing past the second light is triggered. To add to the fun, coming in from the right, is the merge from CO 14/Jefferson st. You get about 3 dotted lines worth of merge space before it becomes right-turn only. Lots of trucks use that slip lane, so the pro tip, is use the left lane through here unless you're turning right at Cherry/Willow (next light).

Where the gren building is being built, used to be a Taco Johns, right at the next light. The train didn't go through it's drive thru, but nearly did.

https://goo.gl/maps/xwaJ1SdxfqBY7u2eA

There used to be another line, that crossed here almost perpendicular to the street, and there was a 'diamond' rail junction just off to the right.

If you click forward (go north) a coupla times, you'll see another crossing, the BNSF Front Range Sub.

[kphoger]

As for "absurd number of tracks", here's one for you.  Depending on how you count them, it either has 21 or 27 or 34 tracks.

I just found one with 21 tracks in Galveston, TX.

What's interesting is that's only on the public side of the gate located at the end of the street; there are several more sets of tracks on the private property beyond it.

I count 19 tracks between Harborside and Port Industrial Blvd, then 8 or 9 more (depending on how you count the one that splits) between there and the fence gate. Not sure where they're getting 21 from.

There are 7 more in the private property, for a grand total of 35 train tracks.

OK, this took a lot longer than I care to admit...

The 21 tracks appear to be a combination of the auxiliary freight yard plus the mainline–but not including those tracks pertaining exclusively to the freight yard at the port itself.  Going by Google satellite view, I've mapped out the rail lines below as well as I can.  The green and blue crossings add up to 21.

Blue = Mainline railroad (or sidings that reconnect to the mainline)
Red = Port of Galveston freight yard sidings
Green = Auxiliary freight yard and spur lines

Starting from the south:

HARBORSIDE DRIVE
1 BNSF mainline track
18 BNSF sidings
PORT INDUSTRIAL ROAD
2 BNSF mainline tracks
pavement ends
6 Port Rail / ADM Grain sidings
Gate #15
7 Port Rail / Pier 39 sidings
becomes WHARF ROAD

[1995hoo]

Amtrak's southern depot for the Auto Train in Sanford, Florida, is an odd one in that the vehicle check-in and passenger boarding is in the middle of a 10-track rail yard. (The yard itself has more than ten tracks, but only ten of them cross the road.) You cross several tracks and then turn into the vehicle check-in lane, which leads to a safety hazard when the check-in line is long and spills back out onto South Persimmon Avenue. The June 2019 Street View gives a sense of how it works; the two cars in front of the Google car are turning into the check-in queue.

The Google satellite image would be easier to follow if there had been cars lined up to check in, but what can you do. The passenger part of the station is at the top left; the platform extends to the right of that and the passenger cars use both sides of the platform. The auto carriers go across the lot on the seven sidings where you can see three yellow ramps. I'd hate to have to pass through there on South Persimmon Avenue at a time of day when the train is arriving or departing and they block the road to assemble or disassemble the very lengthy consist (typically about three-quarters of a mile with 40 to 50 railcars).

[Takumi]

The intersection of Huguenot and Robious Roads in Bon Air, VA has a crossing cutting through it. It's a pretty busy intersection and both roads are four lanes.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JSrcvY7ioozLWGjB8

[1995hoo]

The infamous railroad crossing on Shirley Highway in Virginia (now I-395) just north of Shirlington belongs in this thread. The crossing is long gone and the railroad shut down in 1968. I believe the road would have been designated VA-350 when this picture was taken because my understanding is that the I-95 numbering was only applied as the road was reconstructed to Interstate standards.

The brown building in the foreground is no longer there; a CubeSmart self-storage place occupies the site. The apartment or condo building in the background looks much the same today as it did then.




Edited to add another view of the spot:



Edited to add one more. This is from 1947. The URL is wrong; this is Shirlington, not Rosslyn.

[WillWeaverRVA]

The Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, a freeway, has an at-grade railroad crossing for NJ Transit with terrible sight distance from the northbound lanes because they loop under the terminating Atlantic City Expressway before heading north.

[Max Rockatansky]

Caliente siding in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is located in a 180 degree turn of the Union Pacific Railroad.  I've been on Caliente-Bodfish Road once when a freight train encircled me on three sides. 

[index]

The Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, a freeway, has an at-grade railroad crossing for NJ Transit with terrible sight distance from the northbound lanes because they loop under the terminating Atlantic City Expressway before heading north.

I had read about the crossing on that road being quite controversial, and it made the FRA or some other agency very upset about safety issues. I never saw a problem with it (aside from the sight distance) - the crossing is exempt and trains have to stop before they cross the freeway.

With the sight distance, the advance warning lights are placed a bit too close for comfort. Knowing New Jersey drivers and their speed, people are probably tearing through it regardless of the speed limit, making the "TRAIN WHEN FLASHING" warning nowhere near the right distance. It should be at least another thousand feet up and clearly state "BE PREPARED TO STOP WHEN FLASHING" as well. Less frequently used drawbridges on freeways do better at this.

The intersection of Huguenot and Robious Roads in Bon Air, VA has a crossing cutting through it. It’s a pretty busy intersection and both roads are four lanes.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JSrcvY7ioozLWGjB8

I have to wonder why they didn't bother with gates for the thru movements, especially for a crossing this massive. Maybe they were concerned they would impede the movement of emergency vehicles? I'm not too keen on an explanation like that because they could just use the oncoming lanes - traffic won't be coming through them anyway.

[Evan_Th]

The intersection of Huguenot and Robious Roads in Bon Air, VA has a crossing cutting through it. It's a pretty busy intersection and both roads are four lanes.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JSrcvY7ioozLWGjB8

If this counts, then University Avenue at Lincoln Avenue in Urbana, IL also counts.  I used to regularly eat at the bagel shop on the corner here, and it was fun when I'd occasionally see a train come through.  It's only a small branch line, so unfortunately that didn't happen so often.

https://goo.gl/maps/J2jUMTqW6JCZ4Y4x5

[CoreySamson]

This one on US 93 near Ely, NV is pretty skewed and on a 60 mph road with no crossing guards:
https://goo.gl/maps/LaBSRxNM5Y7d7BVFA

I seem to remember another one in rural Nevada that's even faster that someone once posted.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

This one on US 93 near Ely, NV is pretty skewed and on a 60 mph road with no crossing guards:
https://goo.gl/maps/LaBSRxNM5Y7d7BVFA

I seem to remember another one in rural Nevada that's even faster that someone once posted.

That crossing looks abandoned (piles of snow, tall grass, removal of crossbucks and turning the warning lights inside out)

[froggie]

Main Street at Horne in Mesa, AZ has light rail trains running through a roundabout. Opened in 2019, according to ENR.

On a similar vein, Bloomington, MN is home to an LRT line running through a diverging diamond interchange.

I've always found it amusing to see road-standard rail signals and gates on bike/ped paths.

[dantheman]

The crossing at the University Ave/Campus Drive split in Madison, WI is pretty bad. The angle might not be as badly oblique as some of the others on this thread, but the number of lanes and the adjacent intersection make it interesting. https://goo.gl/maps/21mq3N2onFVgu4S7A

This is especially bad for bicyclists, because there is a small downhill in the eastbound direction on the University Ave approach to the intersection. I once watched someone go over the handlebars here at about 20 mph. He walked away (the front wheel was bent up pretty badly) but I always wondered if he needed any dental work afterwards.

Madison has a few others... while it was removed years ago, the siding for coal deliveries to the old UW heating/power plant used to result in trains blocking Charter Street for a solid 15 minutes as they approached from the east, stopped, and backed into the coal plant. On the other side of town, the tracks run diagonally through the Blair/Wilson/John Nolen/Williamson intersection. https://goo.gl/maps/8ufEPrPQjyitE3S89

[JREwing78]

The Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, a freeway, has an at-grade railroad crossing for NJ Transit with terrible sight distance from the northbound lanes because they loop under the terminating Atlantic City Expressway before heading north.

Not far away, this is the first time I've seen a full-on freeway interchange *just* to service a high school:
https://goo.gl/maps/RwJ8zcp9nzHoocaW9

EDIT: It does appear to also provided a turnaround point for the public works just south of it. Still, that's a rather incredible use of a partial cloverleaf interchange.

[pderocco]

Caliente siding in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is located in a 180 degree turn of the Union Pacific Railroad.  I've been on Caliente-Bodfish Road once when a freight train encircled me on three sides.

That's just down the (rail)road from the Tehachapi Loop, which is pretty cool.

[froggie]

The Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, a freeway, has an at-grade railroad crossing for NJ Transit with terrible sight distance from the northbound lanes because they loop under the terminating Atlantic City Expressway before heading north.

Not far away, this is the first time I've seen a full-on freeway interchange *just* to service a high school:
https://goo.gl/maps/RwJ8zcp9nzHoocaW9

Tupelo, MS has had one of those for decades...it dates at least back to the mid '90s.

[pderocco]

The town of Vernon, CA has an amazing number of tracks snaking through the industrial area (which is pretty much the whole town), some along streets, but most merely crossing lots of streets. I'd post a Google Maps link, but they don't show rail lines. But you can see them in Google Earth.

[JREwing78]

Janesville has a couple of interesting rail crossings. Probably the most notorious is the "Five Points", situated right next to the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad terminal.
https://goo.gl/maps/WK1XsJdWL2ULN6Xm9

Currently, the two eastern legs (W Milwaukee St, W Court St) are one-way couplets (which shortly after revert to two-way streets; formerly they were one-way east through downtown to where they meet up near the fairgrounds). Westbound Milwaukee St traffic merges into the westbound lanes of W. Court St just as it goes through the intersection and crosses the tracks. But notice how the tracks are about a couple car lengths apart through this intersection.

Eastbound Court St traffic can elect to turn left onto Centerway, right onto Center Ave, or continue straight along Court St. Despite the left-turn lane having a perfect angle for it, traffic can NOT proceed directly across to W. Milwaukee St. Instead, traffic has to continue east to Academy St before traffic can return to Milwaukee St to follow it eastbound. Centerway/Center Ave is more-or-less a conventional roadway through here, staying just east of the railroad tracks.

What saves this from being a total disaster is that the signals default to green for E-W movements shortly before a train proceeds through, allowing traffic to clear the tracks. However, if a train lasts too long, traffic does tend to back up on all of the legs.

WisDOT has a reconstruction project planned for 2024, but it does not appear that the intersection will change appreciably.
https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/by-region/sw/us51intersection-janesville/default.aspx

[Dirt Roads]

I've always found it amusing to see road-standard rail signals and gates on bike/ped paths.

Whenever [traffic control devices] are deemed necessary for pedestrian-rail crossings, the standard flashing light signal (FLS) with crossbucks is required by the MUTCD (and so is the audible "bell").  The gates are not required, but are highly effective at discouraging pedestrians and bicyclists from entering the crossing when the signal is flashing.  The [treatments] used at grade crossings are often subject to precedents, such that if the state DOT felt that an adjacent crossing with pedestrians needed gates, it is quite difficult for a municipal (or park) agency to avoid the use of pedestrian gates on a trail crossing. 

[Dirt Roads]

How about two legs of a wye track in the middle of a roundabout on the Florida Central Railroad in Taveres, Florida?

[Rothman]

Just wait until they build what's intended at the New York State Fair to improve safety along the line that runs right along the fairgrounds.  Crossbucks and gates at the main gate is what I believe I saw.

[Dirt Roads]

And there's this doozy near Love Field in Dallas, Texas.